Agency to introduce electronic tax clearance certificate

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it will soon introduce electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) system to help reduce fraudulent certificates.

Mr Kola Okunola, Director ICT, FIRS, said this in a presentation at the ongoing training by Journalism.com Ltd., in collaboration with FIRS on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that the implementation of the e-TCC verification system had reached an advanced stage, adding that it was undergoing user’s acceptance test before deployment to production.

“TCC will be out in the next four weeks. It will provide an e-repository of all TCCs issued by FIRS."

“It will enable FIRS Staff and authorised third parties to verify tax clearance certificates, thereby reducing the incidence of fraudulent certificates."

“It automatically sends Tax Clearance Certificates to the emails of taxpayers and also enables them to request for and print their TCCs online,’’ Okunola said.

He said that the service recently commenced modalities for implementation of robust VAT automation mechanism for power, telecommunications, e-commerce, financial services, oil and gas, insurance, major hotels, malls and hospitality sectors.

Okunola said that the essence of VAT automation in the sectors was to help ensure transparency of tax remittance within the industry and help block leakages.

“Meanwhile, FIRS management is currently adding additional payment gateway channels such as e-Transact to help expand the scope and widen the tax net,’’ he added.

Okunola said that regular conduct of taxpayer sensitisation was ongoing, adding that FIRS established the Federal Enlightenment and Engagement Tax Team (FEETT) to educate taxpayers on their tax obligations and rights.

According to him, FIRS has also installed customised digital signage that had been installed in FIRS Large Tax Offices nationwide to enhance taxpayers enlightenment as part of the efforts geared towards continuous taxpayer education.